About Author: Sierra

Animal Connections, the other aspect of Ms. Boyd’s job, consists of the animal-guest interaction that goes on at the Zoo. Specifically, these include shows—like the Wegeforth Bowl’s Camp Critters, to special behind-the-scenes experiences like Backstage Pass. Ms. Boyd emphasized the importance of connecting the public to wildlife on a personal level. If people have the opportunity to establish such a connection with zoo animals by touching them or seeing them up close, then their awareness and appreciation of wildlife and conservation will be much greater.

Overall, Ms. Boyd says, a highlight of her job has been the opportunity to “contribute to the Zoo-wide training program.” And contribute she has. She’s worked with animals from massive tigers to tiny fennec foxes, and her work amounts to twenty years of dedication to the Zoo’s training program. In fact, when she started working for the Zoo (only two weeks after graduating from college), medical husbandry behavior training wasn’t really taking place. Ms. Boyd spearheaded the movement towards this new system of training, and the impact of her hard work can be seen all across the Zoo.

One example is Adhama, the hippo calf born in late January of 2011. Before Adhama came along, hippo parents Otis and Funani were having some… relationship problems. Funani, the female, was being unusually aggressive to poor Otis, and it was actually preventing the pair from breeding. This is where Ms. Boyd came in. She, with the help of the hippo keepers and other trainers, implemented a program to trim Funani’s tusk. This required intensive training to teach Funani to “target” (stand in a particular location) and to hold her mouth open for extended periods of time. Funani’s training demonstrates what Ms. Boyd calls one of the most difficult—but in the end rewarding—parts of her job: the relentless perseverance that goes into developing an animal’s behavior. Depending on the animal and the behavior, Ms. Boyd tells the intern team, training an animal can take anywhere from a day to a year. She says, “It’s frustrating when animals don’t do it, but so rewarding when they do.” In the hippo’s case, persistence paid off—after 6 months of hard work from both Ms. Boyd and Funani, a tusk trim was finally possible. Funani and Otis were reunited, says Ms. Boyd, and “within fifteen minutes they started breeding.” The reward for all of this hard work? Baby Adhama.

As the manager of the Zoo’s Medical Husbandry Behavior program, Ms. Boyd also spends her time working with the Zoo’s vet, keeper, and behavior staff. She says communication is really important, because the key to successful training is consistency. As Ms. Boyd points out, “there’s no way I could train all 4,000 of the animals here at the Zoo,” so “training the animals is really about training people.” Because of this, the Zoo’s animal trainers have a clear system set up for documenting the training that every animal receives. After each training session, a trainer or keeper records the date, time, and success (on a scale of one to five) of the session, also making comments to give specific information to the next trainer. Ms. Boyd reports that she’s “very proud of [her] staff as she constantly challenges them to “take [training] to the next level.”

Sierra, Careers Team
Week Six, Winter Session 2012

According to Ms. Parsons, the food the Zoo feeds their animals must be safe enough for human consumption. At the Forage Warehouse, where Zoo food is stored, food safety is taken no less seriously than in a restaurant. In fact, Ms. Parsons informed us that she’s been through a restaurant food safety course for this very reason. Like our food industry, the Zoo food system must take great care to prevent food-borne illnesses.  The Forage Warehouse is a great example of this: the door boasts a sign labeling it as a “BIOSECURE AREA” and all people who enter the building are required to first step in an antibacterial footbath. The warehouse is also divided in two: one half designated for meat, the other half for produce. Animals’ food safety is treated with as much care and caution as our own.

Another example of this food safety overlap is found in Zoo Nutrition’s emergency preparedness. Here in San Diego, earthquakes are no less of a threat to the animals at the Zoo as they are to us in our homes. Just as we keep extra supplies of food and water in case of an earthquake or other natural disaster, animals at the Zoo have their own “earthquake kits.” Precautions include reserve stocks of food like pellets. Currently, Zoo nutritionists are in the process of identifying some universal food mixes that can feed a large variety of animals in the event that a natural disaster causes food supplies to be cut off. This is a tricky business because keepers have to deal with a multitude of nutritional needs, the question of storage, and even expiration dates. Again, the overlap between human and animal nutritional needs is clearly apparent.

Of course, the things we learn from zoo nutrition can also translate into how we feed our pets. For example, it’s fairly common for domestic cats to develop kidney problems, as is true for the wild cats at the Zoo. Jama, the North Chinese Leopard, is currently dealing with such kidney problems. As the cat-owners out there know, this can make dietary choices tricky. When a cat’s kidney function goes down, it’s important to lower his protein intake. The problem is, Jama is a leopard, which means his diet is protein. The Zoo’s solution: Jama gets brown rice mixed in with his meat, plus a vitamin that helps his kidneys process phosphorous.  Just like providing our pets with healthy diets, feeding the animals at the Zoo is far more complicated than opening a can of cat food.

Whether you’re eating at a restaurant, preparing for an earthquake, or feeding your cat, it’s fun to realize that our nutrition has a lot in common with zoo nutrition, and the science of breakfast is a universal one.

Sierra, Real World Team
Week 5, Winter 2012

The incubation room is equipped with about a dozen incubators, many of which look like over-sized toaster ovens with extra dials for precise temperature and humidity. Eggs require just the right conditions to develop properly, and these conditions vary from species to species. A lot of factors go in to how an egg develops, Ms. Theule explained to the team, and these range from temperature and humidity to how often the eggs need to be rolled over. Yet such precise attention to minute details is key, because some of the eggs in that room are absolutely vital to species survival. One such egg belongs to a kiwi, an endangered species from New Zealand. According to Ms. Theule, it’s the farthest along, developmentally speaking, that a kiwi egg at the APC has come in a very long time. She enthusiastically reported to the team, “It will be very exciting and very big news if we hatch this [egg].”

With the future of birds like the kiwi riding on its shoulders, the APC approaches the hatching process with great care. To demonstrate this, Ms. Theule showed the team the extensive records for a single egg belonging to a bird called a red-billed malkoha. The spreadsheets, notes, and charts possessed an overwhelming amount of data. This vast source of information, updated on a daily basis, gives APC keepers the best possible chance to hatch this malkoha egg.

Careful attention is not only given to every single egg in the incubator room, but also to the eggs that don’t develop. Interns were given the chance to scientifically examine undeveloped eggs by carefully removing the shell and membrane to look for signs of development. This process allows APC researchers to identify problems and solutions for the incubation process. This scientific approach illustrates that the APC takes its role in avian conservation very seriously.

Clearly conservation begins with the egg, but it definitely doesn’t stop there. After chicks are hatched, APC keepers become the adoptive parents, sometimes to more than 50 chicks at once. Raising an endangered baby bird, however, can be even harder than hatching one. It is essential for endangered chicks to be able to recognize other birds, not humans, as their family. The scientific word for what keepers need to prevent is called imprinting. If a bird imprints on a human keeper, it loses its natural behavior of interacting with members of its own species and therefore… no babies. Ms. Theule showed the intern team a box full of “anti-imprinting” bird-head puppets that fit over a keeper’s hand during the delivery of a meal. Chicks’ enclosures also have Mylar sheets over the glass so keepers can observe the chicks without the chicks observing the keepers. Sometimes keepers even wear “ghosts”—sheer leaf-patterned blankets that keepers drape over their heads if they need to handle the chicks. In the end, all of these measures ensure that a chick can develop as normally and healthily as possible so that they can go on to breed. One day, this practice may save a species from extinction.

So which came first, conservation or the egg? If one thing is clear, the two are inseparably linked, and the Avian Propagation Center is hard at to work to ensure the prosperity of both.

Sierra, Conservation Team
Week Four, Winter 2012

Our next special guest is Cocoa, a southern three-banded armadillo. Her eye peeps out at the camera, but in actuality she relies much more heavily on her sense of smell; southern three-banded armadillos can smell a worm that’s eight inches underground, and her shovel-like front feet make it easy for her to dig one up!

Intern Rachel gets up close and personal with Nindiri, a female jaguar who lives in Elephant Odyssey. This view is from the back of her enclosure and, although not open to the public, it is a destination along several of the Zoo’s behind-the-scenes tours.

Our next stop is another backstage area. This time, we’re around the side of the camel exhibit. Special experiences like this are part of the Zoo’s Inside Look tour.

Mongo, the Zoo’s male Bactrian camel, wastes no time in joining our group. Here, Intern Crystal gives Mongo some tasty celery; in return, he gives her a handful of camel slobber—all part of the behind-the-scenes Zoo experience.

Behind the giraffe enclosure, interns feel some wiry giraffe tail hair. Giraffes are not the cuddliest animals, so we promise not to reach out and touch them. This ensures that the interaction they receive is always enriching and positive.

Of course, the giraffes wouldn’t turn down some delicious acacia. Intern Kayla feeds Nikki the giraffe some of this leafy browse, a big favorite among the giraffes. By the end of the day the giraffes have picked the branches around their enclosure clean. They’re eager to accept this bonus snack.

Sierra, Photo Team
Week One, Winter 2012

To start off, I’m crazy-passionate about science—biology in particular. Of all the classes I’ve taken so far, AP biology (which I took last year) stands out to me as an all-time favorite. I have this innate fascination with the study of life—something that goes way beyond memorizing the textbook definitions of helicase and nuclease. I love it because I know there’s still a whole undiscovered world of scientific possibility and discovery. Because undertaking that quest for new knowledge is an adventure. Because there’s something out there, just waiting to be discovered, that can change someone’s life. Most of all, I love biology because it gives me a great sense of appreciation for the complexity of life, and it inspires me to put my 46 lucky chromosomes to work at making a positive difference on the world around me.

Besides biology, my other passions include running, hiking, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, ice cream, skiing, writing, volunteering, and going on adventures. That’s a lot of passions, believe me, I know—but I’m an enthusiastic person. At school, I’m involved in varsity cross-country and academic league, both of which I find to be tremendous sources of happiness. Outside of school, I’m lucky enough to have been involved with a program called Zoo Corps since 2007. It’s a volunteer program here at the San Diego Zoo in which teens ages 13 to 17 work to educate the public about wildlife and conservation. All in all I’d say I’m a pretty busy kid, but that’s just the way I like it!

Now that you know a little bit about me, I hope you enjoy my updates about the latest and greatest around the Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research. Happy reading!

Sierra
Winter Session 2012